About

RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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At Lenin’s Tomb there is a post about the Europol report into terrorism in the EU, he covers the main points well revealing the fear of islamist terrorism far outstrips the reality. But something leapt out at me when I went and downloaded and read Interpol’s report, and here it is:-

Right-wing extremist violence is a serious, increasing problem in a number of Member States. However,reporting on right-wing terrorism is random as right-wing violence and other politically motivated crimes are mainly investigated as right-wing extremism and not as terrorist offences. [page 37 Europol Telsat 2007]-

Yeah, read it again. This does explain why the BNP connected terrorists found with a rocket launcher, explosives, weapons and a nuclear chemical biological suit were not treated as terrorists and the press coverage was lackluster:-

There were 498 incidents in eleven EU countries last year labelled as “terrorist attacks.” The Basque separatist group ETA did best (136 terrorist attacks) and was responsible for the only deadly attack, killing two in Madrid. The remaining 497 fortunately cost no human lives.

How about the Islamic terrorists then? Considering the perpetual warnings in our daily papers, the findings in the Europol report is, to say the least, surprising. The truth is that Islamists only carried out one out of the 498 terrorist attacks in the European Union in 2006. Don’t believe me? The entire report is available on Europol’s website http://www.europol.europa.eu/publications/TESAT/TESAT2007.pdf.

Had Islamic fundamentalists been behind a higher number of attacks – say 136 – it would have been front page news at every big daily. One attack is simply too few – it won’t do if the image of an “Islamic threat” is to live on.

The Europol report devotes several pages to Islamist terrorism, despite the low number. Except for the one attack in Germany this group was responsible for (which, by the way, failed and resulted in no victims), also Denmark and the United Kingdom reported that Islamists plotted to carry out one attack in each country respectively (incidentally, all three countries are accessory to the illegal occupation of Iraq). –

Now the right word for this isn’t exactly favouritism but if all other varieties of terrorist are subjected to the enhanced state apparatus of surveillance, interrogation and imprisonment but the right wing loonies get treated as run of the mill offenders, it does suggest shaping of policy and public perceptions to regard certain groups as dangerous enemies. But other groups who are equally dangerous are actively kept insulated from the paranoia factory of our Governments ‘War on Terror’ by a discreet policy of not treating right wing terrorists as terrorist but simply as poor misguided extremists. The next question is why? To further policy in the oil rich middle east? Because America told us so? Because Nick Griffin has pictures of Blair fist fucking Tessa Jowell over a pile of the 7/7 dead?

WordPress for reasons best known to itself is not loading all the elements of the blog, this kind of thing happens periodically (I think they are tinkering) and it usually rights itself within 24 hrs. The main body of posts seems ok so it’s not the end of the world, although it is annoying.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Blogging, Wordpress. Comments Off on Do Not Adjust Your Set

Oh America, is there anything you can’t make subservient to money? Hell No!

For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.

Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish. For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts — who are known in the self-pay parlance as “clients” — get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song.

Many of the overnighters are granted work furlough, enabling them to do most of their time on the job, returning to the jail simply to go to bed (often following a strip search, which granted is not so five-star). The clients usually share a cell, but otherwise mix little with the ordinary nonpaying inmates, who tend to be people arrested and awaiting arraignment, or federal prisoners on trial or awaiting deportation and simply passing through.

“I have never run into this,” said Ken Kerle, managing editor of the publication American Jail Association and author of two books on jails. “But the rest of the country doesn’t have Hollywood either. Most of the people who go to jail are economically disadvantaged, often mentally ill, with alcohol and drug problems and are functionally illiterate. They don’t have $80 a day for jail.” The California prison system, severely overcrowded, teeming with violence and infectious diseases and so dysfunctional that much of it is under court supervision, is one that anyone with the slightest means would most likely pay to avoid.-

So in the unlikely event that a rich person has to go to jail, they get to buy a place in a swanky one and maybe watch ‘Oz’ DVD’s on their laptop so they’ll have some stories for their friends.

I remember reading a short report on LaVena Johnson’s death that smelled fishy even with the few details released, at the hearings where Tillman and Lynch got most of the attention it is terrible that the ‘missing white woman’ factor came in and a black woman’s death was overlooked:-

Young Pvt. Lavena Johnson, a St. Louis Missouri area soldier, was killed in Iraq on July 19th, 2005. Evidence in the case points to assault and murder. However, the Army has been covering up the murder, calling the soldiers death a suicide instead.

1. Lavena Johnson was not a candidate for suicide, based on all of the accounts that described her personality, demeanor, her spirit, etc. None of that pointed to suicide. Also, she was nearing the time when she would be coming home and had been making plans with her family.

2. Secondly, from a physical/scientific standpoint it would have been nearly impossible for her to shoot herself in the side of the head with an M-16 with her weak hand. The bullet wound was on the left side of her head, but Lavena was right handed. Typically this is not how a suicide would be done with an M-16 rifle. In addition, weapons residue & forensics tests showed that she did not even fire the weapon.

3. Her face and upper body showed signs that she had been beaten. She had a broken nose, a busted lip, and her front teeth had been knocked loose. The funeral service workers had to repair her face before her funeral. Other parts of her body also showed signs of trauma.-

There are already well documented problems with rape within the US forces in Iraq:-

OR an alternate scenario could be that Lavena was a witness to or knew of serious criminal activity involving officers or senior enlisted folks over there. She must have saw something or heard something, and her superiors knew that she could be a witness against them. In an effort to guarantee that she would not tell what she knew, someone decided to have her killed.-

In amongst all the death of the illegal invasion her murder shows the real monster that is unleashed here, a murdering beast that serves only the elites who are insulated from any consequences. The best way of describing war is this- take all the crimes you can think of, all of them. They are then committed every day many times endlessly until such time as the war is stopped. That’s why it must be only as a last resort in self defence. This war was chosen and it serves no higher purpose other than imperial game playing for control of people and resources. Where is the honour in being in this military?

As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.

Titled “Echo-Chamber Message” — a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again — the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans “practical help and moral support” and “highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving.”

Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.-

Incompetence and mistakes only get you so far, after that there is intent.

Two teenage girls were fined £80 for drawing chalk pictures on a pavement in Bangor, Gwynedd.
Hazel Mercer and her friend Charli Lyth, both 16, were given fixed penalties when a police officer saw them drawing hearts and rainbows.

Their families claimed the pair were told they would be threatened with ASBOs if their graffiti continued. Keith Marsh, Hazel’s father, said he had been told to pay the fine within 28 days. He said North Wales Police had since telephoned him and offered to reduce the fine to £40, but he told them to “forget it”.

A North Wales Police spokeswoman said: “Chalk graffiti has been a persistent problem in upper Bangor for quite some time, particularly around the university buildings. “Whilst on patrol an officer found two teenage girls drawing pictures and symbols on the road. Both were dealt with by means of a fixed penalty.” She added there had been a problem near Bangor’s university where a heavy-duty type of chalk had been used, requiring the use of special equipment to remove it.-

‘hearts and rainbows’? Thank God someone stopped them before they got to the ponies and unicorns. Hmm, so they phoned up and offered a reduced fine, sounds like they know it’s a wrong un. I’m guessing this was a bit of a jobsworth and the girls rightly protested their position so the plod used his Nu-Labour approved “respect’ powers and fined them. But does this mean hopscotch is outlawed? And what is ‘heavy duty’ chalk? Sounds like Al Qaeda might be involved, quick call in the armed response unit!

Remember how a private members bill by ex-tory whip David Maclean which sought to cover up MP’s expenses and insulate our elected representatives from freedom of information requests? Y’know the one that was heroically defeated by Lib Dem MP Norman Baker and a handful of MPs by talking it out for 5 hours. Then strangely (as in secretly backed by the govt and senior scumbags of all stripes) reappeared to be debated again this Friday. Well shit, what happened?-

A PARLIAMENTARY showdown over a Cumbrian MP’s bid to exempt the House of Commons from freedom of information laws was deferred at the eleventh hour. A controversial Bill granting MPs and peers immunity from the Freedom of Information Act had been expected to come before the Commons yesterday.

But in a surprise move, Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill was dropped from the Order Paper for debate. Commons officials confirmed that the debate had been withdrawn until Friday May 18. Opponents of the measure suggested the former Tory chief whip had deferred it until after next week’s local authority elections to draft in more support.

They thought they had killed off the Bill after a marathon debate in the Commons last Friday, but a quirk of parliamentary procedure revived its chances. The government has insisted it has no position on the Bill, but its lack of opposition to date has been interpreted by some as tacit support.
Several ministers – including Tessa Jowell, Tony McNulty, Andy Burnham, Ian Pearson and John Healey – are reported to have voted for the legislation last Friday.-

Hmm, so the fight is deferred to mid-May because they perceive they have a better chance of slipping it through, motherfuckers. Eyes will be kept peeled.